Friday, September 02, 2005

Boom! Biff! It’s Howard Unplugged

A mine manager who stymied a safety inspection and shirt-fronted an organiser has threatened workers that their pay will be slashed if they join a union.

The incidents at Hartley - just west of the Blue Mountains – is a sign that the coming changes to federal industrial relations are emboldening employers to take on their unionised workforce.

Warren Baker, from the Australian Workers Union (AWU), says he visited the site, to speak to mineworkers earlier this week about plans to put them on to AWAs.

After workers quizzed Baker about their right to have an EBA, the mine manager called the AWU official a "dog", told him that anyone who joined the union would lose over award payments, shirt fronted him and tried to kick him off the site.

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